Leonard Pitts: How black is black enough?

7:23 PM,
Jan. 11, 2013

Leonard Pitts Jr.

Written by

Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald

It had never occurred to me to worry about it before. Then came the incident last month on ESPN's "First Take" program that initially got commentator Rob Parker suspended and then, last week, fired outright. It seems Parker, who is African-American, analyzed what he saw as the insufficient blackness of Robert Griffin III, rookie quarterback for the Washington, D.C., football team that is named for a racial slur.

Having returned the team to relevance for the first time since the Clinton era, RG3, as he is known, can do no wrong. But Parker, ...